Rolling Stone
‘The Perfect Candidate’ Reminds You That All Politics Are Local — Even in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour turns the story of a female doctor who runs for office into a sly, buoyant social drama
By
Music Box Films
It must have been exactly what conservative Saudis feared would happen: Let a woman like Haifaa Al-Mansour direct a movie (and the first movie ever shot in Saudi Arabia at that), and a few years later she’ll be back directing another. Only this time, there’ll be actual cinemas in the Kingdom that can show it. Let a 10-year-old girl like Wadjda, the eponymous heroine of Al-Mansour’s delightful 2012 debut, covet a bicycle, and next thing you know, women will be driving. In